Senate Democrats endorse inaction at the VA

posted at 8:01 am on May 23, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

The House passed a bipartisan bill this week that would allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs — whomever that might be — leeway to bypass some civil-service protections in order to fire people involved in manipulating and falsifying data and forcing veterans to wait for weeks and months for treatment. After dozens of veterans died in Phoenix waiting for medical assistance, the urgency of the situation is obvious, and the need for replacing those who hid behind strategies of fraud acute. Even with the horror stories and outrage multiplying, Senate Democrats have endorsed the status quo and inaction, reports The Hill’s Alexander Bolton:

Senate Democrats are closing ranks behind Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and President Obama’s decision to keep him in the cabinet despite Republican calls for his ouster.

As of Thursday afternoon, not a single Democratic senator had called for Shinseki’s resignation.

And Senate Democrats have been slow to embrace House-passed legislation that would give Shinseki the authority to fire senior executives.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) questioned whether legislation could address the VA’s problems, noting “most of it has to be done administratively.”

Thank you, Captain Obvious. Yes, the solutions obviously have to be applied “administratively.” That’s exactly what the House bill allows. Perhaps Senator Schumer is confused because of his lack of experience in running anything but his Senate office, but hiring and firing are administrative tasks. Thanks to civil-service and other federal rules, executives are handicapped in their ability to clean house, even with scandals such as these in full view. The House bill — passed on a bipartisan basis — reduces those handicaps so that VA executives can act administratively to get better and more accountable managers and staffers in place.

In fact, Schumer might want to direct his non-sequitur to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Once again, Barack Obama has refused to act administratively, and the pattern of a lack of accountability at the White House for failure is once again on full display. Politico’s Edward-Issac Dovere says that it’s ObamaCare all over again, but this time with deaths:

President Barack Obama wants to talk about flexing his administrative and executive power to do more. Instead, he got stuck talking about a clear administrative and executive failure that, at least so far, he hasn’t done much about.

And this one’s no contained, bureaucratic flub. The problems at the Veterans Affairs Department have engulfed an entire Cabinet department and may have left hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for care, and 40 of them dead.

The latest stumbles have been a fresh reminder of the story line the White House has been trying to recover from since the fall, when the Obamacare website flopped, the key poll numbers about the president’s competence collapsed so deeply that they’re still far from recovering, and Democrats went into an apocalyptic panic about the midterms. …

But even Democrats have begun to ask: If this really is the Obama administration’s “year of action,” why wait for action on the VA?

As Shinseki himself began calling and meeting with Democrats on the Hill in an attempt to stave off damage, Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), the ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee who’s running for governor back home in November, sent a letter to Obama calling for an executive order to increase VA accountability.

“The president has expressed his outrage at the ongoing situation within the VA, and this is one opportunity for him to use his authority to put badly needed course corrections in place,” Michaud said in a statement about the letter.

You know what that would be? Acting administratively. And in this case, it would be unnecessary if Senate Democrats hadn’t decided to block efforts to do anything about the scandal at the VA only to make Obama look good in comparison. They seem to be satisfied with the status quo. Perhaps veterans ought to let these Senate Democrats know how they feel about it.

Blowback

Trackbacks/Pings

Comments

Reposted from another thread because it is still relevant.

Reading the Shinseki’s “message” to veterans just makes me that much more angry. The rat bastard traitor never takes any responsibility for what is happening in his department. I do agree with this statement.

You and your families deserve to have full faith in your VA, and we intend to earn it every day.

The only way that veterans can have any faith in the VA going forward is a complete sweep of the administrators who have killed veterans through neglect, abuse, and the motivation of performance bonuses. It is too much to ask that Shinseki be frog-marched out of his office and treated like the criminal that he is. But we can all reach out to our Congresscritters and demand the bastard’s immediate firing.

When Obamacare’s website failed, it was “all hands on deck” for urgent and immediate changes. Our veterans who rely on the VA should expect no less. Instead they get an arrogant incompetent bastard telling them that he’s looking into the “allegations” of wrongdoing. How many months is that going to take when there are immediate issues? This weekend as we honor our war dead, reach out to your representatives and tell them you demand action now- not six months from now.

What are their options (other than inaction)? They could throw more money at it, usually attractive to politicians. But this would politically highlight the future of ObamaCare. They could privatize VA healthcare, but we all know that’s not going to happen. They could reform the bureaucracy, but the real purpose of bureaucracy is to perpetuate itself. And by that metric it’s doing just fine. So any reforms would be mere window dressing.

Really, doing nothing is their best option politically, and has the best chance if burying the bad publicity.

Obama and Admin are playing a very, very sick game at present: Obama skirting for comfort with sports, Black youth, random people in a public park, anything to keep him “out there with the people” for photo ops and applause while Shinseki looks utterly dumb-struck before Congress with non-answers and nothing much said that makes any difference about anything.

This isn’t about Shinseki and his failure to do a great job with the VA and vets. He failed at both but perhaps he never was selected to do anything otherwise than that — Obama’s not holding him to any standards, not even for job performance — and Obama’s not holding himself to any level — not ANY level — of accountability as to job performance and accountability for his miserably non-accountable Cabinet and political party.

We won’t get anywhere waiting for any of those to come forth with solutions and anything that matters, that does any good, that doesn’t inflict further damages, insults, harms…

We have to get a majority hold on Congress, please let us get that, and get set for a slog ahead to correct the damages this awful group from Obama on down out of federal government.

THe VA debacle could be begun to be corrected if we could manage to get the public worker unions out of it — that won’t happen, I realize, but we have to start being able to fire the bad employees regardless of what the union wants and demands. Losing a job is the only bell people like that can hear as to doing a reasonable job and unless they don’t hear that bell, they don’t do a reasonable job.

Shinseki SHOULD be immediately fired but it’s not going to make much difference to the problem of the VA debacle. Obama won’t fire him, either, just as he not only wouldn’t fire Sebelius as he made a point of hugging the lady in public, as if she’d done a great job.

So Congress has to, again, do the work in straightening this out — vouchers/referrals for vets to see private practitioners as needed or even desired for their medical care when the VA won’t, can’t or doesn’t, and some serious requirements for all those annual billions given to the VA.

First, we gotta’ get the bad players fired. The public workers unions are the culprits — Shinseki isn’t anything at this point but a dummy.

OVER $150 BILLION, this year’s dispersal o’ dough to the VA by the taxpayers.

For 2015, it’s been budgeted to send $164 BILLION the VA’s way.

The problems are NOT for lack of money — the VA is getting huuuuge amounts of money (those are BILLIONS above, every year) — it’s the dispersal of the money. Public workers unions are the culprit, they’ve made it impossible to fire bad employees, and those bad employees include every single union member at the VA who is forging documents, delaying care if not withholding it, and worse (drug dealing is said to be rampant at some VA locations).

I sense a pattern here. The Democrats seem to think that throwing more money at every problem solves the problem all by its self. There doesn’t appear to be any in depth thinking to accompany the money. Rather, the thought is “Rich people are happy and rich people have money, ergo money makes people happy.” Which also leads to rich people are too happy, or are more happy than they deserve, so let’s take their money and give it to other people.

People are out of jobs, let’s spend more money. People are poor, let’s spend more money. Public schools aren’t performing well, let’s spend more money. HHS, VA, name your cabinet post aren’t being managed well, let’s spend more money. Trillion dollar deficits every year, let’s spend more money. Every issue that comes along seems to require more money (and only more money) to fix it.

Yet, as the current VA situation shows, once more money is allocated, the Dems seem to think that the problem is solved, they’ve done their part and they walk away. Passing the ACA was another classic example. Once the bill was passed, Pelosi couldn’t give a rats ass about the program, she done did her part.

I never see smart thinking going with the money. The Stimulus, throw a lot of money at “select” green companies, and walk away. Where was the vetting? Where was the accountability? And, of course, where was the return? Cash for Clunkers – lots of money, where was the smart thinking before they even wrote that check, let alone after?

Just saw an article — with PHOTOS, of course — of Obama doing his pony-dance through a public park, meetin’and’a’greetin’ the public unannounced. Photos, of course, capture the *STARTLED AND SMILING PUBLIC*.

He’s doing anything possible to get out of town and pose for smiley-pictures with, as captured helpfully in associated photos, an *adoring public*.

Obama always doubles down. Shinseki and everyone else at the VA have nothing to worry about.

Mord on May 23, 2014 at 8:12 AM

You’re right. And it doesn’t MATTER if Shinseki, Sebelious — AND OBAMA — are fired, impeached, whatever, they’re already set financially for the rest of their lives, as are their dependents: wealthy pensions, excellent private medical care, transportation, security, favoritism with favors dispensed…they’ll never want for anything material or political.

It’s disgusting. IT’S DISGUSTING. The financial padding system for public employees IS DISGUSTING and particularly vile (as to Obama, especially), because Americans lose their lives because of their/his malfeasance and need-to-be-entertained-and-not-sweat.

Congress — and a Republican majority Congress — HAS to intervene with the current set-up for these public workers unions and get their stranglehold off the very large (VA included) orgs the taxpayers make possible.

Where are the pickets? Where is the outrage. The Dems can hire pickets and send them anywhere. We should be able to assemble a huge crowd to send to DC and picket the White House, The Hill, etc. A good place for the Rolling Thunder people to go.

If you’re outraged at what gives on in DC then get busy electing state legislators who will support an Article V Convention of the States so that we can strip DC of much of its power. The best way to stop the abuse of power is to remove that power.

President Barack Obama wants to talk about flexing his administrative and executive power to do more. Instead, he got stuck talking about a clear administrative and executive failure that, at least so far, he hasn’t done much about.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) questioned whether legislation could address the VA’s problems, noting “most of it has to be done administratively.”

In other words, most of it can APPEAR to be done by shuffling around VA employees, putting some of them on PAID leave, putting USELESS letters in their files that will never affect their government-employee careers.

Where deserved, I’d love to see people fired and prosecuted. And then I’d love to see them try to find employment with the black mark that they were part of the VA scandal.

Hyperbole, probably, but some prominent bomb thrower in the House ought to accuse the Obama administration of essentially planning to do with these VA employees what the Catholic church did for a long time with pedophile priests: bury their heads in the sand, give them a time out, and move them to some other parish. Maybe a life marked by trauma at the hands of a priest isn’t sufficiently analogous to deaths from a waiting list. But the hemming, hawwing, and foot-dragging from the leadership in the two institutions seem analogous to me–especially when we learned that VA officials in the wrong have merely been shuffled to some nameless bureaucracy in another part of the federal government.

If the GOP weren’t the perennial Stupid party they would use the VA scandal to further demonize and cripple Obamacare.

Charlemagne on May 23, 2014 at 8:42 AM

I realize the reasonable criticisms of Boehner, but he DID make some sensible comments yesterday/day before about the VA situation. When asked if he thought Shinseki should be fired, Boehner commented that what would happen IF that happened was that Congress would then be bogged down in “hearing after hearing” seeking confirmation of a replacement and…

…the problems wouldn’t be addressed.

So at least Boehner gets it in that regard. Obama needs those “hearings after hearings” and it keeps Congress occupied not solving problems.

I hope Congress can force some changes immediately that serve the vets in need, like vouchers for private medical care as needed/wanted/necessary and getting the union/s involved in the VA debacle before Congress for accountability.

Shinseki’s not going to provide anything at this point. He may be a great guy, liked, all that, honorable veteran himself, but he’s failed at the job he was hired to perform. But so would anyone else Obama got into replace him.

I heard a passing remark — perhaps, a revelation — from some media person a few days ago: even employees (members of the public workers union/s involved with the VA as also in other areas of government) don’t even show up for work and they’re still paid, and they still “can’t be fired” per the union/s stranglehold on those jobs.

This has to stop. People hired, if they fail to perform and worse, don’t even show up to perform, have to be removed and no union should ever be in the middle of that relationship between employer and employee.

The VA system is corrupt. They cooked the books and gave themselves bonuses based on the false numbers. This is the very definition of corruption.

To throw more money at a corrupt system is like throwing gasoline on a fire.

esr1951 on May 23, 2014 at 8:36 AM

I heard a left-leaning journo call this Obama’s Katrina. That still does little for me because too many local Dems contributed to that fiasco. I provide another analogy above, and if people don’t like it, this comment about the bonuses reminds me of another. Rewarding employees with bonuses on the basis of bogus numbers was a hallmark of Enron. I think the employees involved and their Democratic protectors need to be vilified until we clean this up.

Hyperbole, probably, but some prominent bomb thrower in the House ought to accuse the Obama administration of essentially planning to do with these VA employees what the Catholic church did for a long time with pedophile priests: bury their heads in the sand, give them a time out, and move them to some other parish. Maybe a life marked by trauma at the hands of a priest isn’t sufficiently analogous to deaths from a waiting list. But the hemming, hawwing, and foot-dragging from the leadership in the two institutions seem analogous to me–especially when we learned that VA officials in the wrong have merely been shuffled to some nameless bureaucracy in another part of the federal government.

the employees involved and their Democratic protectors need to be vilified until we clean this up.

BuckeyeSam on May 23, 2014 at 8:53 AM

Yes, agree. But we shouldn’t expect the Leftmedia to support that — they’ll continue to write about hummus and minimum wage complaints and all-things-gay. Not to overlook big, grinning photos of Happy Obama.

The Left isn’t ever going to admit they failed — worse, they’re responsible for numerous disasters — and the country, otherwise, has to resolve these problems without them, or, rather, in spite of them.

The Left isn’t going to work toward a solution other than to cover for Obama, Bill and Hill.

I realize the reasonable criticisms of Boehner, but he DID make some sensible comments yesterday/day before about the VA situation. When asked if he thought Shinseki should be fired, Boehner commented that what would happen IF that happened was that Congressthe Senate would then be bogged down in “hearing after hearing” seeking confirmation of a replacement and…

…the problems wouldn’t be addressed.

***

Are you telling me that the 50 Democratic senators who found time to compose, read, and sign a letter regarding the damned Washington Redskins don’t have time to approve someone with an unassailable record? Gimme a break.

You know what should be done? Pass the House measure, and make Obama sign it by threatening a veto override. Then get him to nominate McCain to clean this up. McCain probably doesn’t have much administrative skill, but I suspect that he cares, he understands veterans, and he’d likely make heads roll.

The House passed a bipartisan bill this week that would allow the Secretary of Veterans Affairs — whomever that might be — leeway to bypass some civil-service protections in order to fire people involved in manipulating and falsifying data and forcing veterans to wait for weeks and months for treatment.

The federal government employee union is killing our veterans, and Democrats are helping the union kill our veterans.

I’m going to continue to write this on every thread until the union and Democrats stop killing veterans.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) questioned whether legislation could address the VA’s problems, noting “most of it has to be done administratively.”

He’s actually right, but not for the reasons he thinks.

If I’m not mistaken, every state in the union has laws (i.e. legislation) that cover murder. In this case, I think manslaughter is a more accurate term. Look at the facts of the case.

The people responsible for scheduling medical care for veterans routinely and purposely created fraudulent records to actively deny necessary treatment to said veterans, resulting in at least 40 deaths. And they did it for money.

What if we were talking instead about, say, a car manufacturer. Let’s further assume these car guys created a deathtrap of a vehicle knowing full well that it would kill people, but that they would also make alot of money selling them. What would we be doing about that, once this same level of light was shed on the situation?

Or let’s just consider negligent homicide as an alternative, removing the fact that they did it to increase their paychecks. Does that make them any less culpable? And remember, they did do it to increase their paychecks.

So my question is, why is there not even a single investigation at the state level that I’m aware of going on right now asking these questions? Because they’re federal employees? Are federal employees immune from state level prosecution for blatant wrongful deaths???

What I mean is, if you start indicting the people who actually created the fraudulent records (and I think we have all the proof we need already), how fast do you think they’ll roll over on the higher ups who ordered it? Not that it’s an excuse, everyone from the bottom up knew it was wrong, and knew what the result would be (dead vets and higher pay).

Here’s a better idea…. shutter the VA and privatize insurance for veterans. Give them the “cadillac plan”, make it a no cost plan for those veterans who were disabled in service, and be done with it. We’re spending billions on this boondoggle. Spend those billions in the private sector instead.

Once again, what we’re seeing is that government does very little well. So, why bother firing the one guy? Fire them all. The good ones will get absorbed by the health industry. The bad ones can go flip burgers.

There are approximately 26 million American veterans who, we can only hope, will vote against any democrats up for reelection. We as a nation have to make a stand and truly understand who is complicit in this boondoggle called the VA.

I’m going to say it. The modern Democrat party is full of evil men and women. Veterans have died and will continue to die while these Dems stonewall. Why are they stonewalling? Because a government t
Healthcare program that cannot take care if 9 millon people proves that Obamacare sure as he// won’t be able to take care of 340 million. They are, once again more concerned with covering Obama’s tail than the deaths of Americans (see Benghazi and Fast n Furious).

Pelosi said “we have to pass obama’care’ to find out what’s in it”, all 2000+ pages of it, but yesterday the socialist senator stopped the “firing the inept VA thugs” because he didn’t have time to read 2 1/2 pages.